Waiting with Anticipation

After successfully gathering important financial, identification, and educational documents from three different countries Ezekiel finally has what he needs to take along on the 19-hour van trip to the US Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria where his interview with the US Consulate will take place on Thursday. He is requesting a Tourist/Business Visa to visit the US for a month this summer and we are praying that it is granted!

I have some friends who have gone through the US visa acquisition process and all warned me of the steep challenges ahead. I’m pretty sure that ignorance is bliss because I just nodded in agreement that I’m sure it’s difficult, but I figured I’ve navigated plenty of bureaucratic processes through college, living abroad, traveling and doing taxes. How hard can it be?! I missed one minor yet important detail in my thought process: I’d always been navigating the system as a US citizen which gives one a plethora of invisible and often overlooked advantages, not as an outsider!

However, after all that work, now all I get to do is wait! The last time I remember being this excited about waiting for something in a very child-like way was 3rd grade. I was anticipating Beach Day at school for weeks because not only did we get to bring towels to school and do beachy things, but both sets of my grandparents were going to be coming that night after school to celebrate mine and Alex’s birthdays. It was the best thing EVER for an-almost 9-year old girl! As an almost-30-year old girl, I’m looking forward to hearing the news that Ezekiel has been granted a US visa at his appointment at the US embassy in Lagos tomorrow at 9am in that same ridiculously child-like hopeful way. The only difference is that I was sure that my grandparents would be there when I got home, but this time I can only hope and pray!

Monday: CLOSED

When my friend Amy emailed me to let me know that she was going to be doing a mission trip in Guatemala for a week and wanted to tack on a few more days to visit me in El Salvador, I was super excited! It makes me smile when I think about how I met Amy back in 2008 in Michigan at a training preparing us to live in internationally as International Volunteers through the United Methodist church. She picked me up from the airport and drove me to the training. We hit it off immediately and when we arrived and hour later, everyone else at the training was certain that we’d been friends for years not minutes. Since then, I went and visited her in Michigan in 2009 after we had both returned from our respective international experiences, we met up in Chicago in 2010 and did a little international community tour of Chicago and now she is coming to visit me in El Salvador! I love it when happenstance meetings turn into extended friendships!


I was a little nervous about being a tour guide…and driving. Therefore, I rented a car…and a driver…and we were off exploring! Silly me figured that Raul, the driver, would know where the beach Costa del Sol was located, so ignorantly didn’t figure out directions from the airport. As Amy and I were catching up on the happenings from her mission trip and my new life in El Salvador, Raul mentioned that #1 we were running out of gas quickly and #2 he didn’t know where the illusive restaurant Las Olas was located. We used Salvadoran GPS: rolling down the window and asking someone for directions to the restaurant and a gasolinera. The man graciously hopped in and took us up this sketchy looking road to where we arrived and someone got out with a Gerry can. I’m about 99% confident it didn’t contain premium gas as the owner of the rental car had requested, but I was happy to have gas, so I took a picture (because having a tourist friend in town gives me the green light to act like a tourist, too)!

Monday, I took a personal day and we went to the volcano right outside San Salvador and had lunch. Afterwards, we decided to go check out some ruins about 45 minutes outside the city. They were closed. So were the ruins a little further out. We were not defeated that easily, and decided to go downtown to check out the cathedral where Romero is buried. It was closed for renovations. Fine, we’ll settle for the National Palace. It was open, but had closed 20 minutes earlier. El Rosario Church…open…unique…and amazing! It thankfully redeemed our afternoon. Lesson learned for when more visitors come: save the beach for a Monday!


Good times with a good friend! I’m so glad that Amy made the stop! :)

Long Silence

February 7th was the last time I blogged. That is a little behind the one blog per week that I had been aiming for. I think adventuring seems to have gotten in the way of reflecting or sharing. Since the last post here’s a brief overview of the happenings

*My friend Amy from Michigan came to visit for a long weekend! She gave me my first taste of hosting here in El Salvador. It was wonderful to see her!

*I went with some friends to Isla Ometepe in Nicaragua with some friends to run a 25K up a volcano!

*We had a random 3-day weekend at school, so we went to the Mayan ruins of Tikal in northeast Guatemala!

*My long-time friend and former roommate Angie came for a week to visit during which time we stayed at the beach, and I drove for the first time as we explored some of the mountain towns and got lost on every one-way road in San Salvador. We’re basically navigating rockstars if your standard is eventually reaching your destination…even if it’s closed!

*At school, I agreed to be National Honor Society Sponsor for next year and therefore was involved in the selection process this year. I’m looking forward to the built-in service opportunities this will provide!

*I went through the formal evaluation process at school including 8,000 observations and written reflections over everything. Who doesn’t love evaluations?! :)

*All sponsor documents, nearly 50 double-sided pages of difficult to acquire official information, were collected and have been sent to Nigeria in hopes of helping Ezekiel secure a visa to come to the US to visit this summer!

Each of these events contains a multitude of stories that I want to remember so my mission over the next few weeks is to get some of the most memorable parts of these happenings written down so that this crazy eventful time isn’t forgotten! This is a unique chapter in my life that is affording me the opportunity, friends, time and just enough financial resources to have some amazing experiences, so I’m taking advantage of it while I can!